From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751797AbWEKOhM (ORCPT ); Thu, 11 May 2006 10:37:12 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751798AbWEKOhL (ORCPT ); Thu, 11 May 2006 10:37:11 -0400 Received: from outgoing.securityfocus.com ([205.206.231.27]:13411 "EHLO outgoing.securityfocus.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751797AbWEKOhK (ORCPT ); Thu, 11 May 2006 10:37:10 -0400 Date: 11 May 2006 14:34:40 -0000 Message-ID: <20060511143440.23517.qmail@securityfocus.com> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: MIME-tools 5.411 (Entity 5.404) From: "Ed White" To: "ML" Subject: SecurityFocus Article Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org A researcher of the french NSA discovered a scary vulnerability in modern x86 cpus and chipsets that expose the kernel to direct tampering. http://www.securityfocus.com/print/columnists/402 The problem is that a feature called System Management Mode could be used to bypass the kernel and execute code at the highest level possible: ring zero. The big problem is that the attack is possible thanks to the way X Windows is designed, and so the only way to eradicate it is to redesign it, moving video card driver into the kernel, but it seems that this cannot be done also for missing drivers and documentation! I would like to hear developers opinion about it... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The quest for ring 0 by Federico Biancuzzi 2006-05-10 Federico Biancuzzi interviews French researcher Loïc Duflot to learn about the System Management Mode attack, how to mitigate it, what hardware is vulnerable, and why we should be concerned with recent X Server bugs. http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/402